Sadly the latest news on Rupert Murdoch and his son James and the recent developments in the News of the World phone hacking scandal haven't gotten a lot of play recently in the United States, but David Shuster filling in for Keith Olbermann on
August 17, 2011

Sadly the latest news on Rupert Murdoch and his son James and the recent developments in the News of the World phone hacking scandal haven't gotten a lot of play recently in the United States, but David Shuster filling in for Keith Olbermann on Current TV gave it some coverage this Tuesday.

Shuster talked to former Nixon staffer and author John Dean and got his thoughts on the recent developments on the story and whether Rupert Murdoch will be held accountable for the actions taken by his company in light of these phone hackings. Dean seemed to think, and I agree with him, that his son James is probably not going to come out of this as well as his father and will probably be the one taking the fall for this as he's likely to be called back again to appear before the UK parliament, this time, under oath.

Here's the latest from The Guardian -- Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up:

Disgraced royal correspondent Clive Goodman's letter says phone hacking was 'widely discussed' at NOTW meetings

Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and their former editor Andy Coulson all face embarrassing new allegations of dishonesty and cover-up after the publication of an explosive letter written by the News of the World's disgraced royal correspondent, Clive Goodman.

In the letter, which was written four years ago but published only on Tuesday, Goodman claims that phone hacking was "widely discussed" at editorial meetings at the paper until Coulson himself banned further references to it; that Coulson offered to let him keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the paper in hacking when he came to court; and that his own hacking was carried out with "the full knowledge and support" of other senior journalists, whom he named.

The claims are acutely troubling for the prime minister, David Cameron, who hired Coulson as his media adviser on the basis that he knew nothing about phone hacking. And they confront Rupert and James Murdoch with the humiliating prospect of being recalled to parliament to justify the evidence which they gave last month on the aftermath of Goodman's allegations. In a separate letter, one of the Murdochs' own law firms claim that parts of that evidence were variously "hard to credit," "self-serving" and "inaccurate and misleading." Goodman's claims also raise serious questions about Rupert Murdoch's close friend and adviser, Les Hinton, who was sent a copy of the letter but failed to pass it to police and who then led a cast of senior Murdoch personnel in telling parliament that they believed Coulson knew nothing about the interception of the voice mail of public figures and that Goodman was the only journalist involved. News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up" rel=" Read on...

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